{"id":420190,"date":"2025-03-03T13:54:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T12:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/03\/03\/ucraina-meloni-starmer-rutte-tusk-trump\/"},"modified":"2025-03-03T15:17:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T14:17:36","slug":"ukraine-european-bridge-builders-work-to-keep-washington-on-kyivs-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/03\/03\/ukraine-european-bridge-builders-work-to-keep-washington-on-kyivs-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine: European bridge-builders work to keep Washington on Kyiv’s side"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – \u00a0Putting the pieces together<\/strong>. After the\u00a0 (umpteenth)\u00a0earthquake unleashed Friday with epicenter at the White House, Europe rallies around the Ukrainian president humiliated by the Trump administration’s top brass. But it also tries to look ahead.<\/p>\n

While the chancelleries of the 27 member states\u00a0and in Brussels are starting to talk insistently on rearmament, there are simultaneously those who are moving to try to mend\u00a0the rift<\/strong>, douse the flames that\u00a0erupted between Kyiv and Washington, and\u00a0bring together\u00a0the two sides of the Atlantic\u00a0<\/strong>that seem to be growing ever more distant. The Italian premier is working with her British counterpart on an\u00a0EU-US summit,<\/strong> while the NATO chief is urging Zelensky to step back and\u00a0restore relations with Trump.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rutte scolds Zelensky<\/h3>\n

After the fire, the firefighters, who for the occasion are also are also the bridge-builders. The fire broke out when US President Donald Trump and his deputy JD Vance, on\u00a0Friday (Feb. 28),\u00a0ambushed<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, cornering him\u00a0and then kicking him\u00a0out of the Oval Office, making explicit, on live world television, the rift in the Western coalition\u00a0supposedly supporting the former Soviet republic against\u00a0Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

It is time to rebuild severed bridges, like the one between Washington and Kyiv <\/strong>and\u00a0between Washington and Brussels.<\/strong>\u00a0NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte<\/strong> addressed the former. ” I think you have to find a way, dear Volodymyr, to restore your relationship with Donald Trump<\/strong> and the American administration. That is important going forward,<\/strong>” said the former Dutch premier<\/a>\u00a0to the Ukrainian president, urging him to urgently put a patch<\/strong> to\u00a0make up for the diplomatic disaster<\/strong> that unfolded in the White House.\u00a0 It is like telling a bully’s victim to apologize for not giving up his snack.<\/p>\n

\"Pete<\/a>
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (right) greets US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Feb. 13, 2025 (photo: NATO via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We really have to respect what President Trump has done so far for Ukraine<\/strong>,” Rutte noted, referring, for example, to the provision (dating back to 2019) of the Javelin anti-tank rockets<\/strong>, with which the Kyiv army was able to stop the advance of Moscow’s armored columns<\/strong> in early 2022. “We have to give credit to Trump for what he did then, for what America has done since then, and also for what America is still doing” to support the attacked country, the Alliance chief added.<\/p>\n

The Meloni and Starmer Initiative<\/h3>\n

On the other hand, Giorgia Meloni<\/strong> and Keir Starmer<\/strong> are working on the transoceanic bridge. The latter organized<\/a>\u00a0a summit between European leaders, EU officials, and NATO members<\/strong>\u00a0yesterday to coordinate the Old Continent’s efforts in defending the aggressed Ukraine<\/strong> and ensuring the viability of an eventual ceasefire<\/strong>, should it be concluded.<\/p>\n

The night before the meeting at Lancaster House, the Italian premier talked to the\u00a0US president on the phone, “I think it’s very, very important to avoid the risk of the West splitting<\/strong>,” she reasoned<\/a> from the British capital, avoiding taking sides between what she called pro-Trump or pro-Zelensky<\/strong> “supporters.” Meloni was the only one among key European leaders\u00a0not<\/strong>\u00a0to publicly express solidarity<\/strong> with the Ukrainian president after Friday’s ambush.<\/p>\n

\"Giorgia<\/a>
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (photo via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then, the diplomatic card: “I proposed a meeting between the US and European leaders<\/strong> because if we divide, we will all be weaker.” It would be an inter-allied summit under the aegis of Rome and London, which seem to have found an unprecedented synergy and now aim to play “an important role in building bridges<\/strong>” (Meloni dixit<\/i>). On defense, the two governments are already collaborating on developing a sixth-generation fighter jet together in Tokyo. Will a summit be enough to convince the White House tenant not to abandon the North Atlantic Alliance? Just in these hours, his right-hand man (by now a kind of de facto shadow vice president) Elon Mus<\/strong>k called for<\/a> Washington’s exit from NATO and the UN<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Warsaw’s support<\/h3>\n

Italy and the United Kingdom have found crucial backing in\u00a0Poland. Warsaw is among the most fervent supporters of Ukrainian resistance (like London but not like Rome, at least in terms of financial resources and mobilized military assets) but insists on the need<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0a strong transatlantic partnership. “We Poles are supporters of the closest possible alliance between Poland, Europe, and the entire West with the United States,” reiterated Prime Minister Donald Tusk yesterday, flaunting satisfaction with Meloni’s proposed initiative to Trump, “given their excellent relations.”<\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/a>
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk (photo: European Council)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the crucial issue of continental security, the path indicated by the Polish leader is that of “military and defense independence of Europe<\/strong>” from\u00a0Washington, as long as it is “independence, not isolation<\/strong>.” The much-debated and never-realized European NATO pillar<\/strong>, in short. His country has the largest defense budget among the 32 members of the Alliance; in relative terms, forecasts for 2025 speak of 4.7 percent of GDP<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

“Europe is a power,<\/strong>” he says, and “will not be an alternative to America, but its most desirable ally.<\/strong>” As Trump called it, “we must rely on ourselves.”\u00a0To do so, we need to make up for the “deficit of imagination and courage” that afflicts the Old Continent and put it in a position to “defend its borders” without always waiting for Uncle Sam to open the umbrella. After all, it is the Zeitgeist: from Paris to Berlin, via Brussels, the watchword in Europe is “rearmament.”<\/strong> But when people talk like this in Warsaw, there can be no more illusions: the world we knew is over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is frantic maneuvering in the Old Continent to avoid permanently losing the powerful US ally following the disastrous meeting in the Oval Office. Rutte urges Zelensky to mend things with Trump. Meloni and Starmer take diplomatic initiative<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":420181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26411,27755,26042,25802,30515,25948,26064,26329,30622],"class_list":["post-420190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-nato-en-8","tag-donald-tusk-one-two","tag-giorgia-meloni-en","tag-mark-rule-one","tag-summit-ue-usa-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420190"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420209,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420190\/revisions\/420209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}